Community Guitar Classes
with Andrew Lawrence

Photo: Meghan Hoagland

Community Guitar 10-week classes are currently on hold owing to the pandemic. I am leaving the information below available for those who are curious as to how things were organganized pre-pandemic. Back soon!

These classes form the backbone of the Community Guitar program, offering participants the opportunity to build technical skills, repertoire and relationships all in one spot. We meet weekly for 90 minutes, usually taking on 4 songs per 10-week session. We generally work in one major key -- and perhaps its relative minor -- the whole time. This winter we'll be working in the key of D.

The exact mix of classes/levels is determined in large part by the abilities and interests of the participating students, but what you see in the table below is what I'm proposing for the winter. The class levels break down roughly as follows:

• Level 1: Here your first goal will be to get one simple solo and a basic rhythm part under your fingers for each song -- so you, too, can get in on the jamming.You are welcome to add a second, or alternate, rhythm part to spice things up. We'll also get started building the knowledge-base you'll need to get more creative in the future.
• Level 2: At this level you'll probably want to work the more challenging solos and rhythm guitar parts I'll provide, and I assume you have the practice skills that will allow you to do that mostly on your own, working with the materials (written, audio, video) that I provide. Class time is mostly devoted to creative musicianship -- that is, how to work up your own solos and rhythm parts -- and to jamming. You'll should already be playing melodies (ie., lead guitar) and have a pretty good foundation in music theory and the CAGED system to start at this level. (See this page for my Music Theory and CAGED primers.)

If you know where you belong, great -- just let me know what class you'd like to join. If you are considering joining one of these study groups for the first time, please get in touch as early as possible so we can find the best group for you to work with and make sure you're ready. You can reach me in either of these ways:

• Phone: 413.320.8154
• email: andolawrence AT gmail DOT com